


love moderately. long love doth so.

by hobohairedbuckybear



Category: Captain America (Movies), Pacific Rim (2013), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Freeform, I DON'T KNOW OKAY?! THERE WERE JUST FEELS, it wrote itself because steve/bucky, lady!Bucky, pacific rim au / avengers fusion, soulmates in any universe, spoilery-ish maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-18
Updated: 2013-07-18
Packaged: 2017-12-20 15:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/888807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hobohairedbuckybear/pseuds/hobohairedbuckybear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juliet just grins; wild and wide from her side of the bridge, and Steve never says a word when she lets the muffled skitter of high-pitched voices from some back-alley in Brooklyn  slip into the Drift just as her right hook connects with the side of the Kaiju's head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love moderately. long love doth so.

**Author's Note:**

> I have not a clue what this is because absolutely beyond ridiculousness and wrote itself kind of. The title is from Romeo and Juliet.
> 
> I must hand some credit to CallicoKitten because "the bigger they are" (which was not awful at all, go read and roll around in its goodness) gave me uber feels after I watched the movie yesterday. 
> 
> And I have a thing for lady!bucky of late because I mean, come on it would be interesting. Other things of importance: completely unbeta'd, and I saw Pacific Rim once so all mistakes are thus my own. And also the first time posting here on AO3 so, yup. Toodles and enjoy the madness!

Juliet just grins; wild and wide from her side of the bridge, and Steve never says a word when she lets the muffled skitter of high-pitched voices from some back-alley in Brooklyn slip into the Drift just as her right hook connects with the side of the Kaiju's head. It doesn't end the Kaiju by any means but it disorients the bastard long enough for Steve to fire up the plasma cannon on his end. Five bursts and the Category 3 takes one last exasperated breath before collapsing into the ocean at the Commando's feet. 

It was the same right hook that always got his bullies into trouble in the end too. The bullies who only made the fire burn in her eyes when they asked her what she was gonna do about it; like they were too stupid to remember the orphaned Barnes girl had been raised by a single father in the Army, as close to proverbially being raised by wolves as one could come. And no expected the same girl who could bat her eyelashes and steal kisses out back behind the church parking lot, to be the one to tug tiny Steve Rogers -- all skin and bones and asthmatic up off the ground. To dust him off and leave the bullies bleeding and sputtering off in red-faced anger and shame at having their asses handed to them by a girl. 

"You still got a mean right-hook Jules," he tells her with a shove, once they escape the Shatterdome and back into cramped quarters. She shuts the door behind her and lets out a deep breath; wry but exhausted grin tugging at the edge of her lips.

"'Only for you Rogers." 

* * *

The first time she kisses him: _really kisses him_ , isn't after they take down their first Kaiju together and she is all adrenalin, soaked in sweat after getting out of the drive-suit and direly in need of a shower. And she presses him against the cold, steel door of their quarters and nothing can compare to the way it feels in the Drift. Working as one the way they always have and all she wants is that feeling back. Feeling Steve in her and around her and through her; and her in, through and around him in a way that could never compare to any of those stupid boys she had let take her out on dates and out to dance. Perfect barely describing the way the fit together, compatible in more than just the way they move and fight and throw each other around on the mats.

 _(Technically their first kiss was behind Sister Catherine's back when Juliet was getting yelled at for getting into another fight and Steve has a bruise forming on his cheek. And Bobby Williams had triple-dog dared her in math class to kiss him, so she had. But she doesn't think it really counts for much considering they were nine.)_

It is when the first Kaiju rises out of the ocean and destroys San Francisco. It is sudden and she captures his lips in her own and then gently pulls away to let out a deep breath. They are both barely old enough to drive a car and no one quite knows where it comes from. Except it sure as hell looks like something out of one of their sci-fi movies, only the destruction is very, very real. Steve blushes red from top to bottom in the way that always makes her smile. When he asks her what that was for, especially when she was apparently dating that one knucklehead from the football team: not the quarterback and he can't remember his name. She only shrugs and then looks back at the TV at all the damage, all the destruction, and lives lost. 

"World's comin' to an end buddy. Giant monsters comin' outta the sea? Figured I should kiss you now before King Kong shows up and actually destroys New York." 

The grin doesn't last long and they never talk about even on all the nights thereafter; or the all nights before, when they huddle close under the blankets together even though there are two beds in the apartment. 

* * *

"Barnes, don't chase the rabbit!" someone yells in her head and she knows that. Steels herself and tries to focus on Steve's voice because it is right there. Focuses on ice and snow and the way Steve used to get so sick and him reminding her that it isn't real. That it is just a memory. So close and so far and she finally screams until her throat is hoarse and she can feel the pain thrumming through the metal where flesh used to be. Chokes through the water dumping in over their heads from the massive hole in the Jaeger as it drops towards the surface of the water, and pleads out Steve's name over and over.

"Bucky, come on. Juliet look at me. I'm right here. You're ok. Just breathe with me." Pulls her tight against chest and whispers in her ear through the broken sobs. 

Fury and Hill hardly try to contain their obvious disappointment and displeasure. Everyone in the Dome looks at her with the kind of anger that only exists because she tried to murder them with the Plasma Cannon she'd inadvertently powered up mid-Drift. Coulson is the only one who looks faintly sympathetic when Steve is helping her out of the stares and dull whispers around them when they get out of the conn-pad and onto the ground level. He follows them into the lift and assures them that they will get the opportunity to try another Drift, even if it a lie.

He brushes his hand through her hair in the darkness and only kisses her forehead when she whispers another apology that he doesn't want to hear. 

* * *

There was a time when she and Steve were the best damn Jaeger pilots the Americas had ever seen. Earned ridiculous nicknames: Captain America and the Winter Soldier -- apparently for her ice-cold levelheadedness in the middle of combat, and got dragged around in uniform between attacks to smile for cameras and never answer the question of whether or not they were in a relationship that was more than childhood friends turned mind-connected Jaeger pilots. 

No one ever doubts that they had a right to be somewhat cocky about their record, even if it was mostly dealt with in the Mess Hall with nothin' but bullshit being tossed around, or behind closed doors. Peeling off clothes in a familiarly too small bed, whispering and retracing the last attack against one another's skin, and what happened behind Fury's back was their own business. Though no one, they suspect isn't completely aware of what they are up to when they aren't killing Kaijus and saving the planet. 

It is only when the Kaiju isn't dead, comes back up for one last shot -- rips of the metal arm of the Jaeger and its tail snaps down forcefully disconnecting her place on the bridge, that it all ends. Blood and pain that blinds them both -- still connected and intertwined until the power finally dies off and he tugs off his helmet. Steve promises not to leave her and swears off going back into another Jaeger even when it is offered, with little more than a hand-raised. 

They settle in a newer place in Brooklyn; with their combined pension left over from the time in-service. Steve spends a lot of time drawing like old times; jaegers and kaijus and the lines of her face when she is asleep because it is the only time she looks nowhere close to broken, and Juliet watches the news every night, after every new attack. Curled up on the couch and never mentions how much it is ripping her apart to not be there. 

_(Only she doesn't have to say it. Because Steve knows. Could feel how much she lived to be in the cockpit with him, in and connected to him. Saving the world together because maybe for two scrappy kids from Brooklyn, it was all they had.)_

* * *

He knocks on the door, helicopter rotors echoing and stirring up all kinds of attention. People peering out of windows and coming out onto stoops to see what is going on. 

"We need you back, both of you."

Juliet narrows her gaze at Fury. Stark mutters something with a level of cockiness that has her visibly annoyed already. But the new arm feels almost real even if she could care less about the science. Of nerve endings and built-in sensors. Because it is never going to work the way Steve wants it to; and somehow she can feel it before they plug in -- before the start of the neural handshake when all she has is the familiar comfort of the drive suit and Steve's reassuring smile.

* * *

They rename the fully-rebuilt _Commando_ , _The Avenger._ It seems fitting with everything they have lost; one last battle to avenge a war they had never asked for or started. Steve tries to tell her that they named it because of all the lives that had been lost to the Kaiju, but the way he grins tells her it means something more. She had finally relented and given as close to a blessing on the matter because if the world was actually gonna come to an end and she couldn't be the one to help save it, then him Drifting with Stark was the way it was meant to be.

She kisses him before he heads up to the bridge, everyone turning to stare when she yells his name at full sprint through the crowd assembled to watch them go. Suddenly grasps his wrist with one arm and tugs him close with the other; holding onto anything on the drive-suit she can to close the distance between them. It lasts a minute, an hour, a lifetime before she, on tip-toes, lets her forehead rests against his.

"No crying ya' jerk. Everyone is watching," he chides softly before swallowing deeply. Blue eyes steeled hard into her shades of brown. The way it has always been, even before neural hand-shakes and shared memories and consciousnesses. 

"You come home then, punk. You end this and then you come home," she whispers without the desperation that is so readily teasing in her throat. Some Winter Soldier she is, and Juliet only lets go when Stark chides something about the lovebirds and an estimated triple event, fingers finally untangling with his gloved hands.

"Begin neural-handshake sequence," Fury offers to the rest of Mission Control and Juliet sits down beside Coulson who just nods with that tight-lipped grin of re-assurance that tells her that somehow, maybe this will all be ok.


End file.
